Few days back, wandering around at Earthdance, I think I caught a bit of the Basslines Crew doing their thing at one stage. Didn't really perk my interests then, but tonight, they had my grinning. Local soundsystems Basslines Crew and Foreign Dub kinda melded into each other, with, count them, FOUR female MCs on rotation up front, looking fantastic and sounding even better. Unique, each bringing their own styles and their own twists over the djs' blend of jump-up reggae thru soul, hip-hop, dub-step, to ultimately some light and funky dnb riddims. Though not exactly my cup of tea, it was highly commendable.
Then former 2SER lad DJ Ritual tore it up with a light, slightly leftfield dnb set spinning the likes of London Elektricity and Mistical. Had me jumping.
Ah. Shapeshifter. I'm catching them whenever they hit town now, even though the last two shows did leave me feeling a bit flat. Don't know how they manage it, but tonight's show is happening just after their Parklife performance. For poor cheapskates like me who couldn't afford to witness the wonder of the big internationals like Justice and Digitalism and all, a night of pure jungle riddims will have to do.
Tonight was brilliant. Vintage performance. Lads on electric guitar, the awesome drums, banks and banks of keys/technologies, and of course, the ever charismatic P-Digsss up front. Shapeshifter really going from strength to strength. On the back of a brilliant third lp, playing the best live dance music I've ever witnessed, they're just unstoppable. Truly world class, beats anything the internationals can come up with. Their live sound is part soul, part hip hop, even part hard rock, and five parts dnb. Can get a bit predictable with the slow mellow intros ramping up into heavy rock outs and repeat. If it was a dj set you may say it's natural flow was a bit lacking. But that's getting too picky. Truth is, I danced like I haven't danced in years. The junglist crowd was lovely. Brought back memories of my happiest times dancing like nobody's business next to the speakerstacks, bass coursing thru my body. Ace.